ghost story

I’m beginning a new DIY writing retreat! Heading down a new path of revising my draft of Novel #2 – better known as The Romantics, a story of two half-sisters and the cottage they inherit in Italy, along with its resident ghost.

It was drafted last year during National Novel Writing Month, (NaNoWriMo) a month-long writing marathon in which you commit to write 50,000 words of a new book. Are you jumping into this national writing craze too? I rashly signed up and plan to revise last year’s book.

Did you know you can use NaNoWriMo as a rebel? You don’t have to make your goal 50k words. This time, I’m committing to two hours of revision every day, for 30 consecutive–my part-time DIY writing retreat.

If you’re venturing down the #NaNoWriMo path with me — maybe your first-time? — here are some ideas to keep yourself going. Take your courage in both (typing) hands, and tell yourself every day, “I’m now going to do my beautiful writing!” Also, make yourself a structure. Here’s mine.

Structuring a 30-Day Writing Sprint

You need some sort of promise to yourself — that’s the structure. It could be “I’ll write every day” or “I’ll think about my book every day.” My goal is to give myself a month of part-time StayWriCation (as I call my stay-at-home writing retreat) and revise my 353-page novel. NowI’m not counting words, but chapters — 48 chapters to revise. More

Magical realism in women’s fiction gives the reader and writer a broader canvas of possibilities. When you’re reading about women and their relationships (the broad definition of women’s fiction), elements of magic provide visual ways to describe a character’s feelings, frame internal events, and create adventures. Magical realism in women’s fiction can be small touches or big events, such as time travel. I used two magical realism elements in my novel The Renaissance Club , a butterfly emanating from a woman’s mouth when she answers her lover More